The leaves transform into a final colorful blaze before fading from the trees as the days grow darker. Gusts of cold air roll through town ushering in the changing seasons. Spirits haunt the night while people don disguises to frighten them away. It is a magical time of the year with the bounty of the harvest and things that go bump in the night. What better way to enjoy it than some spine-chilling tales of specters and ghastly premonitions?
Assembled here are 15 audio recordings of ghost stories ranging from Victorian times to the age of weird fiction. The recordings are listed roughly by length of time with the shorter stories at the beginning. Peruse the catalog at you leisure to find a tale that strikes your fancy. When you are ready, light some candles, turn off the lights, and cozy up with a hot drink. Try not to think of the spooks too much when the stories over though. It is best not to ponder certain things in the month of October.
Just say you aren’t scared. Just say how brave and nonchalant you’d be if you ever saw a ghost, and see what happens.
Vincent Price – A Hornbook for Witches
The Cats of Ulthar by H. P. Lovecraft (1920)
The first Lovecraft story of the list takes place in his Dreamlands world. The tale explains the origin of a town’s law protecting all the local cats. It reminds us: “For the cat is cryptic, and close to strange things which men cannot see.” (9 minutes)
August Heat by W. F. Harvey (1910)
An extremely unlikely and odd coincidence on one day in August leaves two men puzzled. Have they met before or is it fate that has brought these strangers together on this hot afternoon? (14 minutes)
The Masque of Red Death by Edgar Allen Poe (1842)
A hedonistic prince locks himself and his courtesans up in his castle while a deadly plague rages across the lands. He intends to enjoy his extended bacchanal, but the masque of the red death has something else in store for him. (16 minutes)
The Damned Thing by Ambrose Bierce (1893)
A strange accident during a hunt leaves a group of San Francisco jurors with many unanswered questions. A mountain lion attack seems to be the logical explanation, but diary entries of the deceased leading up to event indicate otherwise. (23 minutes)
The Hound by H. P. Lovecraft (1924)
Two men become engrossed with the art of grave robbing and focus on adding the most ghoulish prizes they can find to their collection. Their twisted hobby takes a turn when they steal an accursed object, and they go from haunted to hunted. The story is full of ghastly elements and a looming doom. (21 minutes)
The Squaw by Bram Stoker (1893)
Newlyweds on a honeymoon explore the medieval town of Nuremberg with an eccentric American tourist. The traveling Nebraskan could have benefited from the earlier cautionary tale The Cats of Ulthar. Within the ancient town they tour a Gothic tower with an old torture chamber. The room is full of many horrifying devices including an Iron Virgin. (33 minutes)
The Thing in the Upper Room by Arthur Morrison (1891)
A young Englishman seeks to save money by renting a haunted room in a Paris apartment. The excitement of staying in the shunned room also attracts him. It would be a fine story to tell to people afterwards. Reluctantly the concierge accepts his offer. He spends the night, but a persistent feeling of absent-mindedness dogs his stay. When did he reposition that chair and he swore he put that other object away earlier… (27 minutes)
Canon Alberic’s Scrapbook by M. R. James (1895)
Another tale with an Englishman abroad. This time at the foot of the Pyrenees in France. This tale really gives the sense of how old Europe was full of forgotten towns steeped in centuries of history. What treasures lie waiting in the ancient stone churches, and what horrifying demons are attached? This story has a truly terrifying monster that stalks. Beware! (36 minutes)
Never Bet The Devil Your Head – Edgar Allan Poe (1850)
This recording is a radio dramatization from 1957. This is the most comical story of the lot being a satire of moral tales. The cast gives a lively rendition of Poe’s parody, but the yarn still ends with a creepy climax. (25 minutes)
Witches Hollow by H. P. Lovecraft and August Derleth (1962)
A rational-minded school teacher works in a one-room schoolhouse in countryside nearby the storied New England city of Arkham. He has a strange student who cannot seem to get along with the rest of the children. His family living on a remote farm in the wild Witches’ Hollow doesn’t care much for his education and dislikes the school teacher trying to encourage the child’s academic pursuits. (32 minutes)
The Signal-Man by Charles Dickens (1866)
A ghostly apparition warns a railroad signal-man of disaster. Is this a ghost of the past bound to relive a terrible accident again and again or is it a premonition of catastrophe? This is a classic Victorian ghost story that defines the genre. (37 minutes)
Man-size in Marble by Edith Nesbit (1893)
A man and his wife move into a country cottage built on the ruins of an old house. The local legends tells of the wicked knights who lived there and how divine intervention struck them down one terrible night. Now they haunt the grounds every All Saints’ Eve, and God save the poor fools who stick around. (39 minutes)
The Empty House by Algernon Blackwood (1906)
An abandoned house with a tragic past forever carries the imprint of evil where phantasms replay the horrific events through the dilapidated halls. A spinster aunt excited by the stories of this manor must see it for herself, so she drags along her nephew one night in order to explore the empty house. (42 minutes)
Hornbook for Witches by Leah Bodine Drake (1950) and other tales read by Vincent Price (1976)
A collection of poems from Drake’s Hornbook for Witches combined with a folktales, short stories, and recorded superstitions. Throw in a narration by horror master Vincent Price, and you have an album that is a Halloween classic. It perfectly sets the spooky mood for a dark and stormy October night. (54 minutes)
Dreams in the Witchhouse by H. P. Lovecraft (1933)
The final story in the list is another Lovecraft story set in old Arkham. It is an extended tale of a university student’s slow descent into madness. A delight for the mathematically inclined as planes and equations form a central part of the plot. The delirious student is stalked by a wicked witch and her terrifying familiar. A quintessential Lovecraftian horror story with a plot that slowly builds until it’s dramatic ending. (1 hour 38 minutes)
